The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I have always found the subject of alternative histories fascinating. What might have happened if Harold had defeated William the Conqueror in 1066? What sort of world might we be living in today if the Central powers had won World War one?

GURPS Alternate Earths 2 follows the success of the original GURPS Alternate Earths, and gives answers to six more of those 'What If' questions, and gives us six alternative history worlds in which to go adventuring.

You can use this book in many ways; The worlds can be places to visit in the 'Infinity Unlimited' parallel-worlds setting detailed in GURPS Time Travel. Or you can use any one as the basis for a campaign set entirely in one of them, though this would involve a lot more work fleshing things out. Some of the GURPS historical sourcebooks can be invaluable here, though some of the ones you might want are currently out of print - Duh!

Each world (except for Centrum) is described in the same format: We start with a broad overview of the history of the timeline from the point where it diverged from our own history. Then we have a description of the world as it is 'today', with a few paragraphs about the major nations. Then we get a section on campaigning in the world, and some sample character archetypes suitable for local-born player characters. Sidebars detail significant miscellaneous information, and interesting tidbits.

What about the six worlds?

Cornwallis

The American Revolution failed; the French one never happened; neither democracy not free-market economics caught on.

This is a dark world, dominated by the exploitative empires of the great European powers, of which Britain and Russia have been the most powerful. All are repressive and reactionary monarchies, with one exception: Russia had a revolution ten years ago following defeat in a war against the other five. The revolutionary Russian Dominate is a harsh totalitarian tyranny. Across the ocean British America is still an impoverished, oppressed and rebellious colony, much poorer than Spanish America, which includes Texas and California as well as Mexico.

Technology is WW1-ish with a bit of a 'steampunk' feel, with the giant 7'6"-gauge trains of Russia. At the moment, it's a 'cold war', the Russian Dominate trying to undermine the quintuple alliance of European thrones by formenting revolt in the colonies. Overall, this is probably my least favourite of the six worlds.

Ming-3

A change of pace from Cornwallis, this parallel sees 14th-century imperial China expand westward to reach Europe at a time when it still enjoyed techological superiority over the west. The ultimate result is a world-spanning imperial Chinese empire, which now includes Europe and much of the Americas. The old European monarchies remain in place, but they're mere vassals of the Chinese. It's now 1859, and the empire has passed its sell-by date; the world faces 'interesting times' as the empire begins to fray at the edges. There have been failed harvests and unrest is increasing; has the emperor lost the 'mandate of heaven'?

I love some of the details, like the Irish martial art of 'Si Lei Li', and the fact that a Catholic archbishop looks just like a mandarin except for the colour. One quibble: the map shows Russia as the biggest nation outside Chinese control, but we're told nothing at all about it.

Midgard

The Vikings sacked Byzantium in the yeat 860, stole the secret of 'Greek fire', and went on to loot and pillage the whole of Europe. Technology has advanced; the Norse now have gunpowder and advanced ocean-going ships; now their St--rdrakkars sail the worlds' oceans as the Norse go a'viking on a world stage. This is a golden age of piracy and adventure on the high seas; Viking raids on India and China.

We have a mixture of religions: with Rome destroyed, Christendom is fragmented; a less-centralised Christianity coexists with Islam and 'Thorism', a rationalised religion which has evolved from Norse paganism. Across the Atlantic Moslems battle with the remnant of the blood-soaked Aztec religion.

This would make a great basis for a freewheeling fantasy campaign; just add some magic and a few supernatural monsters! GURPS Vikings would be very useful in this instance, as might other historical worldbooks such as GURPS China, GURPS Russia and the forthcoming GURPS India.

Caliph

The Arabs invented the printing press in the 9th century, sparking an Islamic renaissance and a scientific revolution. We now have a highly advanced civilisation; high-tech Arabian Nights, with mile-high towers of diamond, highly advanced technology, AI 'djinn', and space colonies.

But all is not perfect; centuries of peaceful expansion have been broken by war; the movement calling itself 'The Jamahirya' has rejected the world-wide Islamic state. It controls the Americas, and has allied itself to the expansionist Caliphate of Hind. So far this hasn't escalated to the level of a total war; but with the advanced bio- and nanotechnology in existance, things could get nasty.

This is very much a 'sense of wonder' high-SF setting; one of the distant space colonies has allegedly made first contact with aliens.

Aeolus

The British 'Glorious Revolution' failed, and democracy was slow in coming to the resultant Catholic-dominated Europe.

While this sounds similar in theme to Cornwallis, the flavour of this world is quite different. The world's attention is focussed on a war; the new 'republican alliance' in central Europe fights for survival against the Habsburg Russian empire, their newly-invented jet aircraft the republicans' major advantage. So far Britain and France remain neutral.

Meanwhile North America is divided between the American Commonwealth, a protestant fundamentalist theocracy on the east coast, who view Catholic Europe as 'Hell on Earth', and the flamboyant French-speaking kingdom of Louisiana. As if that wasn't enough, the Australians also speak French. Another big difference from Cornwallis is that the European nations have not colonised Africa or the Far East; Japan and China remain closed to the west; 'Darkest Africa' is unexplored and unknown, except of course to the natives.

This world again has a lot of potential for adventure; the war in Europe is just one of many things going on across the globe; go witch-hunting in the American Commonweath, or have pulp-style adventures in the unexplored heart of Africa.

Centrum

This is none other than the home timeline of dimension-hopping bad-guys from the 'Infinite Worlds' background detailed in GURPS Time Travel. This turns out to have been an world-spanning Anglo-French empire which had collapsed in global war in the year 1902. Only Australia survived more or less intact; A cabal of scientists called 'The Centrum' seized control and rebuilt society along 'rational' lines. These same scientists discovered the secret of cross-parallel travel. In contrast to the other five worlds, we get very little description of the globe itself; instead the space is taken by their cross-parallel organisation, technology, and philosophy. We learn why they oppose Homeline (or Secundus, as they call them), and what they're really trying to do.

Personally I've never found the default 'Good Homeline vs. Evil Centrum' totally satisfying; Centrum aren't quite dark enough to be a really nasty villain, and to me a 'shades of grey' setting needs more than two sides to be interesting. A sidebar "Centrum Light" shows how you can make Centrum into the good guys; it suggests giving cross-parallel travel technology to Reich-5 from AE1 (in which the Nazi's won WWII) to give them really nasty opponent.

Overall: I like this supplement a lot. A bit like AE1, the most interesting timelines are the less obvious ones, but all of them are very different, and all have a lot of potential for all kinds of adventures. In true GURPS fashion, 'some assembly is required', but there's no One True Way presented for running a parallel-hopping campaign. It's also perfectly usable with other systems; like many GURPS worldbooks there's very little system-specific material, and little or no game mechanics.

The book isn't totally without flaws - sometimes the authors let their American nationalism get the better of them; there's a anti-British flavour in a few of the worlds, a fault shared with the original GURPS Alternate Earths. Could GURPS AE3 rectify this with a parallel where a glorious Socialist Britain upholds human freedom against a brutal Corporate USA?

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

GURPS Alternate Earths 2
Author: Kenneth Hite, Craig Neumeier & Michael S Schiffer Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: GURPS Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-399-X SKU: SJG01995 6530 Capsule Review by Tim Hall on 01/26/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Historical Far_Future Space Espionage Conspiracy Post-apocalypse Asian/Far_East	I have always found the subject of alternative histories fascinating. What might have happened if Harold had defeated William the Conqueror in 1066? What sort of world might we be living in today if the Central powers had won World War one? GURPS Alternate Earths 2 follows the success of the original GURPS Alternate Earths, and gives answers to six more of those 'What If' questions, and gives us six alternative history worlds in which to go adventuring. You can use this book in many ways; The worlds can be places to visit in the 'Infinity Unlimited' parallel-worlds setting detailed in GURPS Time Travel. Or you can use any one as the basis for a campaign set entirely in one of them, though this would involve a lot more work fleshing things out. Some of the GURPS historical sourcebooks can be invaluable here, though some of the ones you might want are currently out of print - Duh! Each world (except for Centrum) is described in the same format: We start with a broad overview of the history of the timeline from the point where it diverged from our own history. Then we have a description of the world as it is 'today', with a few paragraphs about the major nations. Then we get a section on campaigning in the world, and some sample character archetypes suitable for local-born player characters. Sidebars detail significant miscellaneous information, and interesting tidbits. What about the six worlds? *Cornwallis* The American Revolution failed; the French one never happened; neither democracy not free-market economics caught on. This is a dark world, dominated by the exploitative empires of the great European powers, of which Britain and Russia have been the most powerful. All are repressive and reactionary monarchies, with one exception: Russia had a revolution ten years ago following defeat in a war against the other five. The revolutionary Russian Dominate is a harsh totalitarian tyranny. Across the ocean British America is still an impoverished, oppressed and rebellious colony, much poorer than Spanish America, which includes Texas and California as well as Mexico. Technology is WW1-ish with a bit of a 'steampunk' feel, with the giant 7'6"-gauge trains of Russia. At the moment, it's a 'cold war', the Russian Dominate trying to undermine the quintuple alliance of European thrones by formenting revolt in the colonies. Overall, this is probably my least favourite of the six worlds. *Ming-3* A change of pace from Cornwallis, this parallel sees 14th-century imperial China expand westward to reach Europe at a time when it still enjoyed techological superiority over the west. The ultimate result is a world-spanning imperial Chinese empire, which now includes Europe and much of the Americas. The old European monarchies remain in place, but they're mere vassals of the Chinese. It's now 1859, and the empire has passed its sell-by date; the world faces 'interesting times' as the empire begins to fray at the edges. There have been failed harvests and unrest is increasing; has the emperor lost the 'mandate of heaven'? I love some of the details, like the Irish martial art of 'Si Lei Li', and the fact that a Catholic archbishop looks just like a mandarin except for the colour. One quibble: the map shows Russia as the biggest nation outside Chinese control, but we're told nothing at all about it. *Midgard* The Vikings sacked Byzantium in the yeat 860, stole the secret of 'Greek fire', and went on to loot and pillage the whole of Europe. Technology has advanced; the Norse now have gunpowder and advanced ocean-going ships; now their St--rdrakkars sail the worlds' oceans as the Norse go a'viking on a world stage. This is a golden age of piracy and adventure on the high seas; Viking raids on India and China. We have a mixture of religions: with Rome destroyed, Christendom is fragmented; a less-centralised Christianity coexists with Islam and 'Thorism', a rationalised religion which has evolved from Norse paganism. Across the Atlantic Moslems battle with the remnant of the blood-soaked Aztec religion. This would make a great basis for a freewheeling fantasy campaign; just add some magic and a few supernatural monsters! GURPS Vikings would be very useful in this instance, as might other historical worldbooks such as GURPS China, GURPS Russia and the forthcoming GURPS India. *Caliph* The Arabs invented the printing press in the 9th century, sparking an Islamic renaissance and a scientific revolution. We now have a highly advanced civilisation; high-tech Arabian Nights, with mile-high towers of diamond, highly advanced technology, AI 'djinn', and space colonies. But all is not perfect; centuries of peaceful expansion have been broken by war; the movement calling itself 'The Jamahirya' has rejected the world-wide Islamic state. It controls the Americas, and has allied itself to the expansionist Caliphate of Hind. So far this hasn't escalated to the level of a total war; but with the advanced bio- and nanotechnology in existance, things could get nasty. This is very much a 'sense of wonder' high-SF setting; one of the distant space colonies has allegedly made first contact with aliens. Aeolus The British 'Glorious Revolution' failed, and democracy was slow in coming to the resultant Catholic-dominated Europe. While this sounds similar in theme to Cornwallis, the flavour of this world is quite different. The world's attention is focussed on a war; the new 'republican alliance' in central Europe fights for survival against the Habsburg Russian empire, their newly-invented jet aircraft the republicans' major advantage. So far Britain and France remain neutral. Meanwhile North America is divided between the American Commonwealth, a protestant fundamentalist theocracy on the east coast, who view Catholic Europe as 'Hell on Earth', and the flamboyant French-speaking kingdom of Louisiana. As if that wasn't enough, the Australians also speak French. Another big difference from Cornwallis is that the European nations have not colonised Africa or the Far East; Japan and China remain closed to the west; 'Darkest Africa' is unexplored and unknown, except of course to the natives. This world again has a lot of potential for adventure; the war in Europe is just one of many things going on across the globe; go witch-hunting in the American Commonweath, or have pulp-style adventures in the unexplored heart of Africa. *Centrum* This is none other than the home timeline of dimension-hopping bad-guys from the 'Infinite Worlds' background detailed in GURPS Time Travel. This turns out to have been an world-spanning Anglo-French empire which had collapsed in global war in the year 1902. Only Australia survived more or less intact; A cabal of scientists called 'The Centrum' seized control and rebuilt society along 'rational' lines. These same scientists discovered the secret of cross-parallel travel. In contrast to the other five worlds, we get very little description of the globe itself; instead the space is taken by their cross-parallel organisation, technology, and philosophy. We learn why they oppose Homeline (or Secundus, as they call them), and what they're really trying to do. Personally I've never found the default 'Good Homeline vs. Evil Centrum' totally satisfying; Centrum aren't quite dark enough to be a really nasty villain, and to me a 'shades of grey' setting needs more than two sides to be interesting. A sidebar "Centrum Light" shows how you can make Centrum into the good guys; it suggests giving cross-parallel travel technology to Reich-5 from AE1 (in which the Nazi's won WWII) to give them really nasty opponent. *Overall*: I like this supplement a lot. A bit like AE1, the most interesting timelines are the less obvious ones, but all of them are very different, and all have a lot of potential for all kinds of adventures. In true GURPS fashion, 'some assembly is required', but there's no One True Way presented for running a parallel-hopping campaign. It's also perfectly usable with other systems; like many GURPS worldbooks there's very little system-specific material, and little or no game mechanics. The book isn't totally without flaws - sometimes the authors let their American nationalism get the better of them; there's a anti-British flavour in a few of the worlds, a fault shared with the original GURPS Alternate Earths. Could GURPS AE3 rectify this with a parallel where a glorious Socialist Britain upholds human freedom against a brutal Corporate USA? Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)